BB 8830 (as tethered modem) vs. AirCard

I have had extremely mixed results in terms of speed with using my 8830 as a tethered modem in the past. I fussed with removing the Veritas software and tried several different things with VZW tech support to speed the process along. The funniest part was I was literally between two - TWO, VZW towers within a half mile on either side of me, and I got at best a crawling 14.4 modem speed on good days.

My work situation is changing slightly and will now need (er, highly desire) a wireless internet "solution". My definition of solution is keeping a firm balance between $ I send to VZW (aka the devil) and speed.

Anyone out there with some advice or ammo before I waste my time with someone at the devils customer service who will likely sell me something more than I need.

At least with AT&T a noticed that I get better reception with an aircard then I do tethered curve which translates into slightly better speed and the possibility of having a connection in places where my curve would not.

At least with AT&T a noticed that I get better reception with an aircard then I do tethered curve which translates into slightly better speed and the possibility of having a connection in places where my curve would not.

Wouldn't a speed difference on ATT be more attributable to their aircards having 3g and their Blackberries not having it? Their HSPA coverage is limited but not THAT limited.

You shouldn't see that much of a speed loss between a tethered setup or a air card. Usb 2.0 is around 480 mb/s and a tethered device or usb air card would be the same speed there. Only air card that would be slightly faster would be a pci card which is around 500 mb/s I think. The biggest decision you will have to make us wether you want to pay for two data plans and wether you want to have to plug your phone into your pc all the time or wether you want a air card that can stay in all the time?

You shouldn't see that much of a speed loss between a tethered setup or a air card. Usb 2.0 is around 480 mb/s and a tethered device or usb air card would be the same speed there. Only air card that would be slightly faster would be a pci card which is around 500 mb/s I think. The biggest decision you will have to make us wether you want to pay for two data plans and wether you want to have to plug your phone into your pc all the time or wether you want a air card that can stay in all the time?

Maybe the change of location has been a good thing for my 8830 in terms of tethering. I am pleased with the speeds I am receiving in my new digs. I did consider the price increase in terms of buying the aircard and fussing with that route. As far as "broadband" speeds, I don't know about that. I tried a speed test with toast.net and got a whopping 123 k, far slower than a DSL...I guess you get what you pay for - better yet, you get what you connect with.

I appreciate the feedback on my issue.

Thanks.

PS When I called customer service to add the feature, I asked about the "unlimited data plan", which they corrected me by advising it was only 5 GB per month...I just laughed. I didn't even feel like getting into with the ****.

You shouldn't see that much of a speed loss between a tethered setup or a air card. Usb 2.0 is around 480 mb/s and a tethered device or usb air card would be the same speed there. Only air card that would be slightly faster would be a pci card which is around 500 mb/s I think. The biggest decision you will have to make us wether you want to pay for two data plans and wether you want to have to plug your phone into your pc all the time or wether you want a air card that can stay in all the time?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Not true. When you tether your only going to run at EVDO Rev. 0... You will not get EVDO Rev. A with a tethered set up.. ever! The phones are phones FIRST and modems second. The USB 2 has nothing to do with it. Even if he had USB 1.1 with an aircard there would still be no difference because the aircard operates between 1.5 - 1.7mb down and USB 1.1 operates at 12mb.

Not true. When you tether your only going to run at EVDO Rev. 0... You will not get EVDO Rev. A with a tethered set up.. ever! The phones are phones FIRST and modems second. The USB 2 has nothing to do with it. Even if he had USB 1.1 with an aircard there would still be no difference because the aircard operates between 1.5 - 1.7mb down and USB 1.1 operates at 12mb.

You're not going to get Rev. A support because current BB devices on Verizon are EVDO Rev. 0 only. The BB devices do not have the correct chips in them that can be upgraded to Rev. A.

Phones with EVDO Rev. A will support Rev. A speeds when used as a modem. I should know as my phone has EVDO Rev. A and it's unlocked thanks to the magic of cooked roms.

I have a curve 8330. I have a new dell lap top and I tether every weekend. It does not give me any problems. Why pay for an air card when you can just add thether to your plan. I had att blackjack and the tether was slow at ****.

You're not going to get Rev. A support because current BB devices on Verizon are EVDO Rev. 0 only. The BB devices do not have the correct chips in them that can be upgraded to Rev. A.

Phones with EVDO Rev. A will support Rev. A speeds when used as a modem. I should know as my phone has EVDO Rev. A and it's unlocked thanks to the magic of cooked roms.

While you are completely correct about the current BB's not supporting Rev. A, you are not correct about the Qualcomm chipset being the limit. The MSM7500 is the same in the BBs as it is in your Touch. That chipset is capable of Rev. A. Only issue is that RIM may not upgrade the current models to the new capability because they want to move the new Thunder/9500 model which will have Rev. A support out of the box. Really a shame. Also, keep in mind that without a cooked rom even the WinMo phones from VZW don't support the Rev. A capability. In fact none of their WinMo devices up to your model are advertised as Rev. A capable.

This is all the sort of stuff that 99.98% of their customers don't know and that's what they bank on when releasing new devices.